Petrol GWM Tank 300 even heavier on the juice than hybrid sibling

The confirmation of GWM bringing a diesel alternative of the Tank 300 to market early next year could not have been better amid fuel prices set to take a turn for the worse again.

Only offered as a hybrid during its local debut in March, the Chinese manufacturer recently supplemented the SUV range with a petrol powertrain. We sampled the petrol Tank 300 and as we expected, it is a bigger guzzler than the hybrid.

We reckon buyers will consider holding out for the oil-burner in the hope that it is less thirsty than its siblings.

Tank 300: Hybrid vs Petrol

To put the petrol Tank 300’s fuel consumption in context, we to need to weight it up against the hybrid (HEV) The Citizen Motoring tested in April.

The HEV is powered by the same combination of a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol engine and an electric motor as found in the GWM P500 bakkie and Tank 500. It delivers a total system output of 255kW of power and 648Nm of torque. The twist is sent to all four corners via nine-speed automatic transmission.

After 563km, its fuel consumption stood at 13.9 litres per 100km. a far cry from GWM’s claim of 8.4L/100km. We could not even get to that figure maintaining a pedestrian pace on an 102km open road trip. This patient experiment worked out to 9.4L/100km.

Drinking problem

Enter the blown 2.0-litre mill on the R725 950 petrol-only Tank 300 in Super Luxury trim we tested which makes 162kW/380Nm. The twist is sent to all four wheels via eight-speed automatic gearbox.

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GWM’s claim that this derivative will sip 9.5L/100km has us concerned already. Despite weighing 150kg less than the HEV at 2 155kg, the petrol model sipped 14.8L/100km. Not only for the 400km we covered, but for the entire first 1 500km of its life!

A slow 84km open road trip produced the best return of 10.1L/100km, which is as good as it will get. But this was quickly forgotten on one morning school run in our petrol Tank 300. The 10km round trip in usual morning traffic resulted in a number of 18.8L/100km.

Oil-burner up next

Strangely enough, the real-life consumption compared to GWM’s claim is consistent in both cases. The HEV is 5.5 litres over and the petrol 5.3.

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The diesel is powered by the 2.4-litre turbo engine found on the lower-end P500 models which we haven’t tested. It sends 135kW/480Nm to all four wheels via nine-speed automatic transmission.

In the P500’s case, combined fuel consumption is listed as 8.6L/100km. If we add over five to that number in the Tank 300, the diesel might not be as heaven-sent at the pumps.